Please Make Chat Smarter

Imagine you want to go online to buy a camera for a vacation. You go to a website and…

–WOULD YOU LIKE TO CHAT?–

Um, sorry, are you talking to me? I just got here. Please leave me alone. I don’t need any help…yet. No thanks. You close the chat invite and go to the camera page. Maybe at some point you wish you had that help that was offered far earlier in your journey but now no one’s around. You were offered help when you didn’t need it, and, when you do need it, it’s an electronic ghost town. You end up leaving the website. No sale.

This journey is what happens with most chat systems in use today. They use some sort of rules-based system to initiate chat based on time on page or just showing up. And they know nothing about what you’re trying to accomplish on the site. They’re not very smart.

There is a better way to offer chat.

Now imagine you visit the website and start browsing a Canon EOS Rebel T3 SLR camera (no chat interruption…you don’t need help.) You find the Canon PowerShot SX50 HS and check out the specs on it. (No chat interruption…you still don’t need help.) Then you go back to the first one…then back to the second one…then back to the first. You can’t decide. You’re stuck.

–Hi. I see you’re comparing the Canon EOS Rebel and the Canon PowerShot. Can I show you a comparison of the features? –

Wow! Help when I need it – and you know what help I need. That’s great!

That’s intelligent chat using predictive models and real-time decisioning to know when is the best time to offer chat. Then it offers specific prompts based on what you’re trying to do because it intelligently anticipates what you’re trying to do.

Legacy chat systems just aren’t smart enough to do that because they use rules that segment customers coarsely against simple one-size-fits-all conditions. Intelligent chat uses predictive models to assign a numerical propensity score to each customer taking into account the potential hundreds of variables to determine “incrementality.” Incrementality is the increased likelihood for a customer’s journey to be meaningfully and positively impacted by offering assistance, as compared to whether the customers were left to self-serve. In other words, if you’re doing fine on your own, leave you alone. If you’re struggling or about to leave and abandon, reach out. Intelligent chat provides this ability to precisely identify whom to target, when to invite them, how to engage with them, and what to recommend.

The result is more incremental revenue and better customer service. In this case, the customer is far more likely to buy the camera – and maybe even a lens and a camera bag. It’s a better experience for the customer and a positive impact on your business.